The same things that makes You Gotta Dance and Wish You Were Here disco. It's in the rhythms that are an amalgamation of soul, funk, and salsa. "Pure" disco was a form of pop with strings and lush arrangements such as No More (Love At Your Convenience). The other two are not pure disco, but they are definitely disco/rock crossovers along with songs like I Was Made For Loving You by Kiss.

It has always been interesting and off-putting to me that Alice made this song considering that the album before it used satire in You Gotta Dance as a statement that disco was hell. It just all comes off very dishonest to the Alice ethos.

I agree with Guttertrash on this one. It is definitely a disco song much like KISS's "I Was Made For Loving You" is as well and it did well on the charts for Alice but years later Alice has said he hates that song. I may be in the minority but while it is not one of my favorite Alice tunes, I do like it and what's interesting is when Alice started having a lot of hits with ballads in the mid 70's to late 70's, this was the most uptempo song that hit the charts, lol.

Although it's far from being a favorite of mine, I don't mind it at all. I rarely skip over it when listening to the L&W album. Can't say the same for many songs post 1986. And "You Gotta Dance" is a cool tune.

Maybe the point is he was invading the Bee Gees' territory the same way he did Hollywood Squares - nothing was safe from Alice. Just a thought. Love the video.

Just a thought, he was killing his career.

I think that just depends on how you look at the rise and fall.Personally I think the 70s albums as a whole (LITD-FTI) are an amazing run of records. If I were to do a Top Ten (as on the other thread) they would be 9 of my 10. I love later albums as well, but I think the 70s albums are untouchable by almost anyone, but that's just my opinion.

In the first 4 years you have a band at the top of their game. five albums, peaking with Billion Dollar Babies, but all of which were noticeably different in tone. LITD doesn`t sound like B$B.

Then you Have Alice going solo and heading in a different more mainstream direction starting from WTMN. What he was doing was more "Hollywood", for want of a better word, then the band and so it could be argued THAT was the beginning of the fall. But they are exactly what Alice was aiming for. HE WANTED to be Hollywood. Hollywood was his biggest influence and it's stars where his idols more then musicians. He wanted to be on TV and in films and the music reflected what he wanted to do. He was using the albums as a gateway to that world. He only partially succeeded of course. He never made it big in films and has always been relegated to bit parts to this day. But I think maybe he had already typecast himself by 1975 and never got the scripts/offers that would maybe have allowed him to crossover. He's never really got a part that took him away from the general horror image, with the possible exception of 'Sextette' which was awful in every way and still just a stunt casting bit part, as were many of the cameos in that film.

As can still be seen today many fans just didn`t get it and/or just didn't really like the lighter touch, which I can absolutely understand. They wanted Alice to continue as he was before, but HE was bored with doing that every time. He wanted to take showbiz angle further and become mainstream, but I think he did it better then many artists because mostly the albums were still excellent and not simply pop albums, but they certainly weren`t the same as the band albums and weren't meant to be.

While he certainly shed fans from WTMN onwards, I think the real fall was Flush the Fashion, the change of image and sound, and the complete lack of promotion from Warners who didn`t care anymore and were just sitting out the contract. Sure, FTF has it's moments, but it doesn`t sound like anything that came before, so not only had he lost a percentage of fans with each album following WTMN (as the band fans who held out hope of a stylistic return slowly realised it wasn`t going to happen) but he then alienated another large percentage of the latter "Hollywood" fans with Flush, if they even knew it was out!

While I know many fans love the early 80s Alice (FTF-Dada), and I like the albums as well, the majority didn't. The original band fans had mostly long given up. The latter 70s fanbase didn't like the new sound either. The press generally slammed them as well, and the record company didn't care. There ARE gems in there but they don`t stand up to the 70s albums, with the exception of Dada, which if released after 'From The Inside' I think would have got a far higher profile, as it's closer to that album then the three that actually proceeded it.

So to get back to the point (sorry for the waffle)... I think 'no more love...' was just Alice doing what he was doing at that time. Aiming for the mainstream. It's an okay track but no, it wasn`t the start of the fall. That was WTMN in many ways, and the final nail was 'Flush the fashion'.

Honestly, if you were to hold a gun to my head....between "No More Love.." and "Poison".....I would listen to "No More Love...." for infinity over that whole album of Trash....I barf every time I hear "Poison".

At least, "No More Love..." has orchestration, that saves it. The production is a little muddy. But, lyrically, it's sarcastic.

It's just another lame track, from a very lacklustre album; epitomizing the 'state' all the main participants were in at that time. I like 'Broadway' Alice, but L&W just reeks of 'shove it out; any old rubbish will do' contempt.

To quote SI, "While he certainly shed fans from WTMN onwards, I think the real fall was Flush the Fashion, the change of image and sound, and the complete lack of promotion from Warners who didn`t care anymore and were just sitting out the contract. Sure, FTF has it's moments, but it doesn`t sound like anything that came before, so not only had he lost a percentage of fans with each album following WTMN (as the band fans who held out hope of a stylistic return slowly realised it wasn`t going to happen) but he then alienated another large percentage of the latter "Hollywood" fans with Flush, if they even knew it was out!

While I know many fans love the early 80s Alice (FTF-Dada), and I like the albums as well, the majority didn't. The original band fans had mostly long given up. The latter 70s fanbase didn't like the new sound either. The press generally slammed them as well, and the record company didn't care. There ARE gems in there but they don`t stand up to the 70s albums, with the exception of Dada, which if released after 'From The Inside' I think would have got a far higher profile, as it's closer to that album then the three that actually proceeded it.

So to get back to the point (sorry for the waffle)... I think 'no more love...' was just Alice doing what he was doing at that time. Aiming for the mainstream. It's an okay track but no, it wasn`t the start of the fall. That was WTMN in many ways, and the final nail was 'Flush the fashion'."[/quote]

Great post, SI. I remember when Flush was released Circus Mag called it "his most blistering album since Killer". Alice tried to drastically reinvent himself, but, unlike Bowie with his late '70's albums, the critics didn't applaud it. If the album came out in '78 or '79 during the ascension of punk/ new wave, it might have been better-received. I'm in the category of original fans who enjoyed the change of style. I loved the album, but not as much as FTI. It did chart higher in the USA than FTI, and "Clones" was a minor hit. I also enjoyed SF, Zipper, & Da Da. But I agree that his run of '70's albums is spectacular.

What makes the song disco? if I was being flippant I would say that NMLAYC stinks, just like disco. But as has been pointed out, very eloquently, it was the orchestration, the BPM and various other little "flourishes" which push it well and truly into pure disco.

You gotta dance is disco inspired (never liked it myself) but it still retains the rockier sound (kind of like the kiss track mentioned above) Wish you were here is not really disco, it has inflections of it at the start (along with 1970's husky bear "frisk me" music ) but I think its safe to say that the outro well and truly rocks hard and shows how good steve hunter/dick wagner/tony levin and alan swartzberk were.

Si makes an interesting point and I broadly agree with the "downfall" mentioned, discounting L&W (which, we basically all should) the 70s output was solid all the way through. Although sales wise (and touring wise) i believe numbers were on the downward trend from 76.....the early 80s albums (while interesting and sporadically brilliant) were a mess of jumbled ideas and the sound of a washed up star grasping for relevancy. Again, I like the output at this time (broadly speaking) but it is what it is.

To quote SI, "While he certainly shed fans from WTMN onwards, I think the real fall was Flush the Fashion, the change of image and sound, and the complete lack of promotion from Warners who didn`t care anymore and were just sitting out the contract. Sure, FTF has it's moments, but it doesn`t sound like anything that came before, so not only had he lost a percentage of fans with each album following WTMN (as the band fans who held out hope of a stylistic return slowly realised it wasn`t going to happen) but he then alienated another large percentage of the latter "Hollywood" fans with Flush, if they even knew it was out!

While I know many fans love the early 80s Alice (FTF-Dada), and I like the albums as well, the majority didn't. The original band fans had mostly long given up. The latter 70s fanbase didn't like the new sound either. The press generally slammed them as well, and the record company didn't care. There ARE gems in there but they don`t stand up to the 70s albums, with the exception of Dada, which if released after 'From The Inside' I think would have got a far higher profile, as it's closer to that album then the three that actually proceeded it.

So to get back to the point (sorry for the waffle)... I think 'no more love...' was just Alice doing what he was doing at that time. Aiming for the mainstream. It's an okay track but no, it wasn`t the start of the fall. That was WTMN in many ways, and the final nail was 'Flush the fashion'."

Great post, SI. I remember when Flush was released Circus Mag called it "his most blistering album since Killer". Alice tried to drastically reinvent himself, but, unlike Bowie with his late '70's albums, the critics didn't applaud it. If the album came out in '78 or '79 during the ascension of punk/ new wave, it might have been better-received. I'm in the category of original fans who enjoyed the change of style. I loved the album, but not as much as FTI. It did chart higher in the USA than FTI, and "Clones" was a minor hit. I also enjoyed SF, Zipper, & Da Da. But I agree that his run of '70's albums is spectacular.[/quote]

I have FTI & FTF w/a couple of relative singles - "Because" & "No Tricks" on a CD in the car changer. NML was a decent track on L & W but I don't have an 8 - Track player in the car anymore. It did sound good crusing w/a few beers back in the day though!